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This is probably my last blog entry. As promised in my previous entry, I will talk more about my hometown Guangzhou.

1. Food
Guangzhou is famous for having good food, of almost all styles in the world. Food in Guangzhou has its reputation not only for the numerous choices and styles, but also for its quality. Cooks in Guangzhou are very creative. You will always find exciting new items on menus. For example, when we think about Vietnamese food in the US, we are mostly limited to Pho and spring rolls. In Guangzhou, the menu from a Vietnamese restaurant can include items from Vietnamese style stirred-fried tofu to steamed-cooked crabs with coconut. This is merely one tiny example of the Guangzhou food. Besides those set-style restaurants, many other dinning places goes with fusion style, which tends to bring you more amazing food that are out of your imagination.

2. Architecture style
Guangzhou has its special Lingnan style in architecture. I am not an expert in architecture, but I can give one typical example. Look at the corridors of Gerlach Hall, Schoenbaum Hall and Mason Hall around the Fisher Courtyard. The style of these corridors are actually of one of the lingnan building styles—Qi Lou (骑楼). In ancient Guangzhou, many buildings were built with Qi Lou. Qi Lou in Chinese means “buildings over the roads”. These buildings were built above the sideswalks of the avenues and streets. The design of Qi Lou increase the usable space of the buildings as the second and third floors extend over the sidewalks, while the pedestrians on the streets are also benefited. Guangzhou is very humid with lots of rains. Qi Lous provide long corridors for the pedestrians so that they can walk along the street without umbrellas even when it’s raining. On sunny days, the corridors create shades to cool down the sidewalks as well as the buildings themselves.

3. Something new
I am happy to have found the citizens of Guangzhou are more aware of environment protection. The stores in Guangzhou no longer give plastic bags to their customers for free. Walking on the street, I see very few people walking with plastic bags. Most people go shopping with their own shopping bags instead. One day while I was having breakfast in a local restaurant, a customer came in to get her breakfast to go. The waitress put a pair of disposable chopsticks in the food package but the customer politely returned the chopsticks saying “I have my own set so please save this one for the sake of our earth.”

Last but not least…….This is my last blog entry. I would like to thank all of the Fisher staff, and you, my dear blog readers for all the support during the past year.

Since I will start working in October, I decided to take a trip to China before the start date. I would mainly stay in Guangzhou, my beloved hometown. And, here I am, now!

Guangzhou is the capital of the Guangdong Province, or otherwise known as Canton. Established more than 2000 years ago, Guangzhou was once the third largest city in the world, while the ancient maritime silk route began here. Guangzhou was so well known and important in international trade that the word “Canton” originally referred to the city of Guangzhou.

The world will get to know more about Guangzhou as Guangzhou hosts the 16th Asian Games in November. In my future couple blog entries, which can also be my last entries for Fisher Grad Life, I will write more about Guangzhou, and show you the city in my eye.

The following pictures will give you some first impression of the city.

The above picture shows the area I lived in, including my home, my elementary school, my middle and high school. The picture was taken in one of the subway stations in Guangzhou. Each station has its own picture of this kind to show indicate the area around the station.

I have limited access to the internet this month so please forgive the delay of my posts. I may also post several entries at one time.

Here are some exciting updates of mine recently. I’ve got a job! I had been in touch with Fisher’s career advisor and fortunately heard about a job opening in one of the leading accounting firms. More coincidentally this information was forwarded by my friend Kyle, who is also a MAcc alumnus and a blogger. I contacted Kyle immediately and he gave me much information regarding the position as well as helpful advice on application. With Kyle’s advice, shortly after a brief phone interview and an office interview, I have landed a job!! The position is in Boston, which is perfect for me. This once again proved that it is important for Fisher alumni to keep in touch with the Fisher community. Your phone call or email regarding any opportunity can be of great help for your fellow Fisher colleagues. Without the connection with the Fisher network, I might still be desperately hunting for a job.

Tonight (Thursday night) is the Buckeyes’ first game of the 2010 football season, while tonight is also the beginning of the season through which I will go without a cable channel called “the Big Ten Network”. This means I will miss a handful of Ohio State’s games for the season. The first lesson for Ohio State alumni upon graduation — get a cable package that includes the Big Ten Network!

By the way, I am now sharing an apartment with a Florida fan and a Florida State fan. You know what would happen for the rest of the year. The advantage of having a piano, and being the only one who plays, is that I can play Carmen Ohio, Battle Cry, and Hang on Sloopy when my fellow roommates become offensive. =)

So I have moved to Boston for more than a month and have explored different places in town. Boston is somewhat similar to Columbus in the way that both the cities are the capital of the state, respectively. Both have a financial district centered in downtown area, embraced by college campuses, with a river running through it.

However, there are more differences between the two cities than their similarities. The biggest difference Boston has compared to other cities is its non-grid street layout. Many of the nation’s cities use grid street plans. A much older city itself, Boston’s city layout is more complicated. Many streets can be observed on the map as radius of a circle centered at certain historical points. Some roads go above or underneath across others, with lots of tunnels and bridges, making the city a maze which even GPS’ would scratch their heads at.

Boston is not large (not referring to the great Boston area), only one half the size of Columbus. With a population density four times of Columbus’, nevertheless, along with other factors, Boston is truly a metropolis. The bad news is, the living index matches, too. I have been missing food prices from Columbus. $1.90 per gallon milk is normal in Columbus, but in Boston you don’t even get half gallon with that price. I still remember when corn was in season, supermarkets in Columbus sell 12 ears for $2. The price freaked me out in Boston when I arrived in June—with 2 dollars you get only 4 ears of corns. Of course the differences are not always to that extreme as I observed through a longer period, but goods are sold at higher prices in general in Boston.

One more difference I noticed in Boston is a fashion style inherited from the New England origin. This observation is not obvious and hard to illustrate, but I could sense the difference as I walk through crowds in the public. This simple but elegant New England trend adds a perfect blend of the two sides of the city, historic and modern.

But sometimes I miss the days when I can easily locate people in scarlet and gray Ohio State clothing at any corner. When I see anyone wearing an Ohio State T-shirt, I smile.

Ascend is a Pan-Asian organization of business leaders, especially in accounting and finance. I joined Ascend when I was in undergrad and have been benefiting from the organization. I have attended numerous career development workshops, participated in a KPMG case competition, received a scholarship, and was invited to Ascend’s first annual national convention. The experience gained and the support as well as the mentorship from Ascend has been invaluable through the years.

This summer, in Mid-August, Ascend’s 3rd national convention was hosted again in the New York City. Opportunities are open to earn scholarships, to win the KPMG case competition, and to expand your network. The deadline of early registration for the convention is July 16th, while the deadlines to apply for scholarships and the case competition are July 14th, all coming up this week. If you are interested, you have to hurry up.

If you want the original digital copy of the flyer, or if you have any questions, feel free to email me at xu_369@fisher.osu.edu. I believe this is a very good chance to build a stronger resume and start expanding your network even before school starts (especially for the new MAccers).

After a busy finals week, a full-of-excitement graduation week, a relaxing home-sweet-home week, and a new-to-the-city Boston week, I am BACK, back to my Fisher blog. I will keep posting until September when the 2011 MAcc class assembles at Fisher.

I actually left Columbus half a month ago, but keeping my Fisher blog grants me a way to stay in Fisher, virtually. Feeling closer to the Fisher community reminds me the interesting details during the year. People from the Fisher family always give me the confidence to overcome any challenges in my new life in the new city. I will post more about my new life in Boston. This entry is reserved for a brief recap of the graduation week.

I still remember my graduation from undergrad. I had enough time, between my final exams and the graduation ceremony, to drive to Columbus for apartment hunting. This time was different. Although I had full five days after the finals, never did I feel sufficient the time I had remaining in Columbus. Tuesday, right after I submitted my last take-home final, I dragged my boyfriend, with my Ohio State marching band bear, to take pictures all around the campus. I tried to shoot for every corner in school, hoping the pieces of photos could preserve this special year in this special place in my mind….

Hm…that sounds sad, nevertheless, the rest of the week was infused with fun and happiness. The whole week’s schedule was packed with back-to-back events: my first pro baseball game initiated by the head of the Rabbits (see Nadia’s blog here), a crazy group trip to Cedar Point, the MAcc pre-commencement reception followed by a friend-and-family visit to the Columbus Zoo, and last but not least, the grand graduation commencement at the Shoe on Sunday. I was so grateful that I have many dearest friends and an always supportive family to make up this happy ending to my MAcc life. Although the day I packed everything onto my dad’s car and drove back to New York was unavoidably heartrending, the cheerful feeling brought by friends and family will last for a life time. A famous line we all know at heart–“Time and change will surely show”. Yes, they surely will.

It looks like I have a lot to catch up for my blog but time has been pushing me off close to the edge. This past week was the second to last week of class, but felt like the last week. Last Monday was the first Monday that we don’t have an IFRS presentation since the midterm exam. On Wednesday, my finance investment class did one last trading simulation competition. It is not hard to imagine a scene where everyone held their breath on intensive trading. However, everyone enjoyed the class experience so much during the quarter. Before leaving, every student walked up to the professor to thank her. A touching feeling overcame me watching this and made me wish I could take this class one more time.

I gave my supposed-to-be last presentation on Wednesday afternoon for the accounting policy and research class, assuming I will not be chosen to present in the IFRS class next week. I really wish to present next week in IFRS, though, as I might not get to do any presentations in similar settings.

Yesterday my melancholy feeling of “the end” was lessened a bit as I waited more than an hour in line to get discount tickets for Cedar Point and the Columbus Zoo. Great thanks goes to fellow MAcc student Nadia; otherwise I would miss all these benefits as an Ohio State student. Next step is to plan a group trip to Cedar Point!

In my last semester in undergrad, I thought it was going to be my most relaxing term in school. It turned out to be the busiest one. Being warned by that experience, I did not expect the spring quarter to be relaxing, but still hoped it to be a relatively slow one. However, the first two weeks have already proved me wrong. As graduation approaches, things began to stack up. Right now I can barely recall how many weeks we are into the spring quarter and how many weeks are left before we graduate. The only thing I do with time management is to follow my schedules and checklists everyday to make sure I don’t miss any significant items.

Last weekend I flew to the east coast to look for an apartment for next year. I got back in town on Sunday night and took a mid-term exam at 8:30am the next day. Some old friends came visit me this past weekend so I spent a blissful day walking on the beautiful campus in spring and showing my friends some Buckeye pride. With the deadline crossing my mind, I finally completed the exit exam yesterday. The next big thing on my to-do list is to plan the trip for family and friends for my graduation/commencement.

Of course, the midterms and term papers that are knocking on my door are included in my schedule. However, no matter how packed my schedule looks, whenever there is something that I can do with my friends I try my best to squeeze in time for it. Softball practice? Yes. Softball games? Can’t miss! Parties to celebrate? Definitely. I am so glad that we have all these exciting things to do together before we go our separate ways. And I hope we can have more group events before graduation comes. We may all live in different cities leading our careers toward various directions after we become Fisher alumni, but those exciting plays, goofy acts, swelling ankles, mischievous winks, and funny conversations, will be special links among us and by no means we will be denied “once a group of crazy kids (but also good kids) in grad school”.

I am not used to this. My undergrad school usually has spring breaks in early April. Like for many students from semester-system schools, spring break means “in the middle of a semester”, not “in between two individual quarters”. After the final exams for the winter quarter, my body was expecting an at least one month break, even though I knew there was only fat chance. Now this bio-system of mine is hating the feeling of that like being woke up at 3am in deep of sleep.

But this effect is minor. However, one week into the quarter, the fact has become apparent that this is not a laid-back quarter at all. I am taking four courses, all of which require intensive reading and analyzing. Only at the beginning of the second week, I can already be seen running back and forth among rooms in Gerlach Hall, holding in my arms a laptop and stacks of paper. IFRS, Merger and Acquisition, Investment and Market, and an accounting research class, all the topics that are currently attracting the world’s close attention. Mastering the knowledge and skills will definitely make me more competitive in the field. Although I lack a strong background in some of the topics, I have committed myself to get all these down. I know this is not going to be easy, but this might be my last quarter at Fisher, or even last to study in school … it’s worth the fight!

Prof. Werner’s toy animals she puts up in every Investment and Market class. Which one do you think you are in the market? =)